August 31, 2025 • 43 mins
In this episode, Fred from Alaska is back with his second interview with Sonny Grant from Juneau, Alaska, shares his personal adventures and experiences in Thomas Bay and surrounding areas. Highlights include a detailed account of a 1972-1973 church group trip inspired by 'The Strangest Story Ever Told' by Harry Culp, featuring eerie silence and the mysterious 'little people'.
The discussion shifts to various legends and sightings, from Sasquatch encounters near Mount Juneau to tales of shape-shifters, orbs, and cannibal giants. Sonny also recounts a terrifying personal encounter with an unknown creature near the Mendenhall Glacier.
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00:00 Introduction and Welcome 00:05 Sonny's Background and Mount Juno Adventure 00:16 The Thomas Bay Expedition 02:09 Eerie Silence and Strange Occurrences 02:44 Historical Context and Creepy Legends 04:00 Encounters with the Unknown 11:25 Cannibal Giants and Tribal Stories 15:56 Modern Sightings and Personal Experiences 21:32 A Terrifying Encounter on the West Glacier Trail 39:23 Reflections and Conclusion
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/sasquatch-odyssey--4839697/support.
The discussion shifts to various legends and sightings, from Sasquatch encounters near Mount Juneau to tales of shape-shifters, orbs, and cannibal giants. Sonny also recounts a terrifying personal encounter with an unknown creature near the Mendenhall Glacier.
Get Our FREE Newsletter
Get Brian's Books
Leave Us A Voicemail
Visit Our Website
Support Our Sponsors
00:00 Introduction and Welcome 00:05 Sonny's Background and Mount Juno Adventure 00:16 The Thomas Bay Expedition 02:09 Eerie Silence and Strange Occurrences 02:44 Historical Context and Creepy Legends 04:00 Encounters with the Unknown 11:25 Cannibal Giants and Tribal Stories 15:56 Modern Sightings and Personal Experiences 21:32 A Terrifying Encounter on the West Glacier Trail 39:23 Reflections and Conclusion
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/sasquatch-odyssey--4839697/support.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now one of your pudding. I got a string going
on here, something just cause my dog.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Something killed your dog, my dog.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
We're flying through the or over the tree. I don't
know how it did it, Okay, Damn, I'm really confused.
All I saw was my dog coming over the fence
and he was dead. And once you hit the ground like,
I didn't see any cars. All I saw was my
dog coming over the fence. Sat, what are you putting?
(00:39):
We got some wonder or something crawling around out here?
Did you see what it was?
Speaker 3 (00:51):
Or was it was?
Speaker 1 (00:52):
Standing enough? I'm out here looking through the window now
and I don't see anything. I don't want to go outside.
Jesus quice you better. Yeah, Hello, get somebody out here
when i'm out there. I thought of a bit of
about sixty nine.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
I don't know I'm out there.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
Yeah, the booking right away.
Speaker 4 (01:12):
Thanks for joining me today to spread in Alaska. We
have Sonny who's returning, so I'll let you take it
from there. Sonny.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
I'm Funny Grand Turner, Juno, Alaska. I'm full Clankett born
and raised in general. I told about my Mount Gino adventure.
I think that's pretty complete. I'll just go into Thomas Bay.
Thomas Bay trip happened in nineteen seventy two, nineteen seventy three,
and that was quite a few years ago. I'm not
(01:40):
sure if you or your listeners have heard of a
book called The Strange Victory ever told I have, Yeah,
maybe some of your listeners haven't. You can buy that
book for less than ten bucks on Amazon. The author
is Harry Kolpe. He was one of the four miners
who went to Thomas Bay. We went there mostly because
(02:01):
of that book. Thomas Bay is one hundred and five
miles south of Juno. We went as a church group.
It was about nine of us, the adults and seven boys.
We're on a twenty four foot bay liner. It took
us all day to get to Thomas Bay. It was
a beautiful weather. It was a perfect time to be
(02:24):
on the water. It was evening time when we got
to Thomas Bay. The story starts off at a river
called Patterson Creek, and we weren't certain, but we anchored
off the river. That was very beautiful. Before bed, we
read that book. It's a very short book. You don't
have to read that book. It's a good book to
(02:45):
read while you're out camping. We're at the place where
it happened in the book. We woke up the next morning.
We had a little skiff. It took a couple of
skiff rights to get all of us the shore. One
of the STAP members stayed on the boat just to
make sure the bow wouldn't drag anchor or something. We're
brother lunches. We started hiking up. We end up following
(03:08):
this ridge. I think we were fallowing a game trail,
like a deer trail or something very common to find
bear trail. They're very wide, almost like going into a
little cylinder. Yes, we were hiking up this trail, we
noticed how quiet it was. Usually you would hear a
hermit draft or eader, eagle of the ravens, other animals, squirrel, morments,
(03:35):
you would hear all these animals. We didn't hear anything.
We thought that was very unusual. We're talking amongst itself, saying, yeah,
we're definitely in the right area. It's strange because I
grew up hiking very young. I grew up deer out
and with my dad, so I was very familiar being
in the.
Speaker 4 (03:55):
Woods right now. Historically, there's some issues with that area.
There was a village and what have you that no
longer exists.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
It was a landslide that happened at the base of
Crescent Lake, which was the lake we wanted to see.
That was another reason why we were eyking up to
see that lake. They call it Half Moon Lake in
the book. There was no real name for it in
the book, but that's what it was called. The landslide
(04:25):
happened in seventeen fifty, the Big landslide, and that killed
everyone in the village. Ever since then, it's been really
creepy being there amongst the natives. There are stories that
wasn't a place to go. You avoided it because there
were some bad things happening there. The story that happened
(04:48):
with those four miners happened nineteen hundred. In the book,
he talks about several excursions to Thomas Bay all the
way up to nineteen fourteen, trained things that happened to people,
mostly the miners.
Speaker 4 (05:04):
It makes you wonder about that because me, I've always
suspected that there's something to do with the energy near
gold mining area, gold products energy along with cords and copper.
It just always seemed interesting to me that historically in
modern times there's encounters people making reports of just craziness
around gold mining man.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
That's described in the book. They called them little devils,
but it's the little people that you've talked about. There
are little people, and they're not very tall. They're like
three three and a half foot tall to mouth. That
was the reason why we just were so fascinated with
that story, plus that sighting a hand. When I was
(05:45):
younger boys being that sta squat going up mountains, you know,
I knew those strange things in the woods. It was
hard to find information, and I always looked up to
topic and libraries. Back then there was no Internet of all,
word of mouth or finding books. We just kept going
up that trail. It was so quiet. I mean, you're
(06:09):
the guy on the boat. I don't know what you
were doing, but he was moving something on the boat
and we could hear it all the way up or
we were. We must have been a thousand feet up.
Looking down you can see the water through the trees.
We couldn't really see the boat, but we heard it.
It was that quiet. We just got that with the
(06:29):
various trends, and we kept going and we had quite
a few breaks, and we do want to notice no insects.
There's usually no sea under the mosquitoes. There are always
the problem that was nothing.
Speaker 4 (06:43):
Yeah, that would definitely get my attention. Though, considering pow
Alaska is anytime it goes quiet for me, I'm either
ready to leave or my head's on a swivel, depending
on the circumstances. There's something about the sound going away.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
At some point where you reached a tree line, which
in that part of southeast I guess it's around twenty
two hundred teet some around there. Because the further south
you go, the higher of the tree line. Yeah, you
get down to Wantington Man tree lines four or five
thousand feet. So we made it up to the tree line.
We kept going up this ridge and in the distance
(07:18):
we saw a lake and we got higher and we
can clearly see the lake. Tellers stayed like a quarter moon.
We spent time up there and just enjoyed the view
and everything, and we were just waiting. We had time
to go to that lake if we can find something.
Apparently you can hike around there and find the old
abandoned campsite.
Speaker 4 (07:39):
That would be cool just from a historical aspect. I
would just hate to accidentally disturb someone's final resting grounds
or something like that. You have something following me out.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
After a while, we had to go back down. It
took us a while to get back down the same thing,
very quiet. We made it back on the boat and
which stayed there overnight anchored as the same place, and
carried it way back to you know, when you camped
out of another heerber. I think it was taco inlet.
(08:11):
Not much happened now, it's the main thing that happened
is how quiet now, no insect. But the fact that
I saw the lake that was mentioned in the book,
the book fell real to me. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (08:24):
It's nice when you're able to, if you're read a
book like that, to actually be in the place in
which it's speaking of it. It definitely gives a whole
different vibe to it. It takes it from just a
story to a screenplate.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
It's been different from those little people. That's a shape shifter,
and there's lots of stories. They can change forms. They
can look like a person, and they can look like
other animals. You might see a fox go behind the
rock and when it re emerges on the other side,
it's a different animal. There's been strange things many people
(08:59):
my tribe. Usually when you see that, you don't want
to hang around.
Speaker 4 (09:04):
Yeah, anyone in the right mind that they see a
fox go behind a rock and it comes out the
other side of the rock. As some ptarmigan or.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
Something on the internet. There's a canister who was in
the Prince of Wales Island near Ketchikan. Yes, I don't
know if you heard that guy's story.
Speaker 4 (09:22):
I've heard a few from Prince of Wales. It's always interesting.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
The reason why I'm bringing this up is I'm agreement
with what he says about the sasquatch and the things
that shape shift, that has orbs and everything that's interesting.
A man who is a preacher and he has a congregation,
the Salvation Army. He was in charge of the church.
He was told by the captain. They all have a ring,
(09:45):
and usually it's a captain that's the minister. It's a
Salvation army. It says, if anyone comes to you and
start talking about sasquatch her bigfoot, just listen and be
very polite. Don't disagree with them or make fun of them,
otherwise you'll be on the bad side of the whole community.
Everyone there's mostly clinkets and hedis. He'll be in the
(10:10):
bad side if you have a bit of a remark
about their sightings. This minister said, the shape shifters and
the things as orbs. It's his belief there is different
from a sasquatch. He buys a sasquatch, or the hairy
man is a real living, biological thing. Then he talks
(10:32):
about the things that shape shift and everything, and those
shape shifters can change into a hairy man, it can
change back. I thought that was very interesting when he
said that, and that made sense in my mind because
I just couldn't put my mind around the fact that
some things can change and have orbs because I've never
(10:54):
seen that.
Speaker 4 (10:56):
I've seen orbs, but not until recent history. And when
I first saw it, I was honestly, I was in shock.
I was like, what am I actually looking at? Because
it was like a little plasma ball.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (11:06):
It was fifteen feet in the air, twenty feet in
front of me, and then it started moving off to
my left and I followed it closely behind but paralleled it.
It stayed twenty feet away and I paralleled it off
to my left once it stopped moving and started going
into the trees. I crossed a little bit of the
driveway there down at Kenney Lake, down near the Copper River,
over at Miss Carroll's place. This was last year. As
(11:29):
soon as I crossed the driveway, because it was plasma,
swirly kind of thing, but there was something white inside
it that was very defined, I just couldn't because of
the way it was swirling. I couldn't make it out.
So I was trying to get a better look. And
then this thing started shimmering like a cat lure or something,
and then went off into the trees like it was
trying to get me to follow it. Squatch bait startled me,
(11:51):
he was like, because I didn't realize he was right
there beside me, he was like, we should go inside down.
It startled the crap out of me, and I was like,
oh shit. I was like, yeah, no doubt, but yeah,
seeing something like that and experiencing it, what do you
do with it. It's not like you can the troopers
and be like, I'd like to report this. It's hard
to know what to do with that kind of information
(12:11):
when it happens in front of it. But it would
make sense that it's more heavily spiritual when it comes
to the shape shifting and the orbs, it don't only
makes sense.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
They're the shape shifter, which is like a kushakha and
that can and just shape and has orbs energy and
they can disappear. Those are different from the Sasquatch. I
thought that was very interesting and I always felt that
they must be different things.
Speaker 4 (12:36):
Would you mind sharing just a bit about the cannibal
giants and certain things you may have heard coming up
as a youth.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
More giants I've since heard from my grandfather, Austin Hammond.
I talked about my grandfather's but there was actually two.
One was my mother's father, which is Austin and Haynes.
He was the chief of a Chowcat. And then there
was another grandfather who is from cake Cows. My father's father.
(13:03):
I only met him when I was very young because
he died, But it was Austin. My grandfather up in
Haines had told me about the Cannibell giant. A cannibal
giant happened in our area. It happened to other parts
of Alaska as well. We had a totem pole. We
had a couple of marble carvings, which was very unusual.
(13:24):
Of a cannibal giant. I always wonder when the world
is a cannibal giant. I thought that was definitely myth.
But as I grow older and when I saw that Sasquatch,
I figured that's what they are. Because the Sasquatch in
Southeast they had been reported to be fifteen twenty feet
tall the biggest ones.
Speaker 4 (13:46):
Which is massive lougus. Even if it was a bee hole,
let's say, and it's overall girth or lanky, twenty foot
is huge.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
There's a tree I discovered when I was deer on
Douglas Island, which is the island right across from Juneral.
That tree had been fifteen feet in diameter. I estimated
it would take thirty forty people to hold their hands
go around that tree trunk and the first branch was
eighty feet up. That was a red cedar tree. Back then,
(14:16):
I was a smoker and I remember having a cigarette
and asked my friend Doug, come here. They came over
to look at this, and we just couldn't believe how
big that tree was. We always went there. I tried
to go there every time I make it over to Douglas.
It's just something to see something that big What were
(14:38):
some of the things.
Speaker 4 (14:39):
That your grandpa had told you about as far as
the cannibal giants and whatnot.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
The cannibal giants is said to beware, don't go into
the woods, similar things what you said, don't whistle because
they do tree knocks. They always said if they catch you,
they'll kill you and they eat These stories are very old.
Speaker 4 (15:01):
Stay tuned for more sasquatch out to sea.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
We'll be right back after these messages.
Speaker 4 (15:09):
Oh yeah, for sure, because like when I asked an
elder one time, I was like, how do you know
they steal us and eat us? My older said, because
they always have. I said, how long have they been
doing that? You know what I mean? As a kid,
you just kind of it's hard to wrap your mind around.
Until I was older and I was told, they've always
been our enemy. They've always stolen and eaten us. Also,
(15:29):
those is about them changing you into one of them
over the course of five days. If you're captured by
your village and held for five days, it'll break that
whatever curse or whatever hold they had on you, and
you revert back to your normal self. But I've heard
a couple of those, so I'm sure it stems from
(15:51):
somewhere or something, or maybe a prisoner swap or something.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
Grandfathers. They're Austin. There's a team for the raven House.
They're even now when are sixty years old. Original village
it's from as Klukwan, which is the oldest village in
our tribe. It's been there for seven hundred and fifty years,
continues to occupy. There's seven cemeteries in Plakwan and only
(16:18):
one is used. The rest are abandoned. You can go
there and it's amazing how much stone has been used.
So that was very interesting to me since I'm a
stone curb. There were stone curbs back then, or able
to do clinket designs Northwest Coast designs on marble. One
(16:41):
stone had been about five feet tall, and there's a
cannibal giant on that design and it's pretty big. A
cannibal giant is holding a man and the man is dead,
but you can tell just by looking at it that
he killed this man. I figured this fine had it
(17:01):
been one hundred and fifty or sixty years old when
I was carved.
Speaker 4 (17:06):
Kind of makes you wonder if the grave was of
the guy that was in the land of the cannibal giant,
you know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
Yeah, no one knows.
Speaker 4 (17:14):
Makes it more interesting than knowing what I know, Like
anytime I hear of hanes in that area of southeast
Last year, I was sent some anonymous footage and it's
real grainy, but it was reported as a ten foot tall,
five foot wide hairy man with black skin and blonde hair.
It's not the best video quality, but you can see
(17:35):
this thing, and it was reported that it was plucking
roots and eating roots in the middle of the day,
looking at everyone watching it. That to me is creepy.
It's enhanced and stabilized footage. It's just like what sparked
this thing of all the time to just sit on
the open during the day. From what I was told,
like twenty twenty five people were there. I wasn't the
(17:56):
only footage recorded, It was just the only stuff sent
to me. So I'm sure there's more footage of this thing.
But for three days prior it was reported that this
thing was looking in windows, they shut down the what
was it called head Start daycare because it was seen
out back when the kids were playing. It was also
reported that people were walking around in small groups armed
(18:18):
because This thing was all over the place for whatever reason,
just drawn to town looking in everyone's windows. I don't
know if it was looking for an opportunity or what.
It's just real odd behavior because typically you don't hear
about something like that. That's a horrible thought sting. But
head start building for little snacks, little Tommy and Cindy.
(18:40):
That's affrdble.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
It's owned where Sin was a living, and it was
in a cave. Seemed to have a fire. You mentioned
one year videos to the use fire, and I have
no idea how oh they started, But in the old
story they had a fire, there was a glow about it,
and that's how they knew this cannibal giant was living.
(19:04):
The whole tribe one then all the men went in
there and attempted and I couldn't fight fifteen twenty men
who was willing to die to accomplish what they set
out to do. They eventually killed this thing from the story.
It was very big and the only thing they could
do was to take it make a big bonfire, and
(19:26):
they burned it. They cut it up and burnt it
in the fire. That was the only way to get
rid of it. And the next day everything was burnt.
And one of the myths my tribe is that's where
mosquitoes came from. Is they were stirring the calls and
the dust rose up and those turned into mosquitoes. The
(19:47):
cannibal giant says, you may kill me, but I'm still
going to torment you when I'm gone. Of course, no
one knew what he meant by that.
Speaker 4 (19:55):
A lot of people would be like, oh, that's mythology
in folklore. I don't know. I wasn't there for that.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
If we meet up later this summer and we'll show
you these photos. It's in Klokwan and there's a lot
of old houses there. It's been there for a long time.
Some of these stories were first recorded by Russian missionaries,
mostly Russian Orthodox. There was different other explorers that made
(20:21):
it into Chokecat. Like you heard of John Muir, right,
the naturalists. Yeah, John Muir wrote a book, He wrote
several books, but that went up to Choka River and
met to my distant relatives and many other explorers. German
explorers made it up there, and I think Kraus is
(20:44):
one of the guys's name. They interviewed and they reported
a lot of stories that cannibal giants story came out
that when that guy was told the story, this is
back in the late seventeen hundred. Maybe it's just a
guessing because there was no real accurate records back then,
but it was definitely late seventeens or early eighteen hundreds
(21:08):
that these stories are first recorded by non natives. Natives
that told them the cannibal giant stories said, this story
is very old. No one knows when the Tutorian when
it happened. Of course, we still have sightings of these
things in the woods. And when you know what they are,
the cannibal giants.
Speaker 4 (21:30):
You were raised with the knowledge of cannibal giant, hearing
about it from just our separate cultures about how they're
the enemy, they'll steal you in each you and things
of this nature. It's hard to hear about accounts down
in the state side where they're seemingly so friendly. And
it's not that I don't believe it, it's just because
of the contrast, the huge contrast from what some people
(21:54):
report as a friendly forest friend forest giant purveyed protector
of the woods, which I never bought that narrative because
if that was the case, why is there a logging
industry at all? Almost the force that we once had gone.
If there were such protectors, I don't see that would
have happened. It's such a difference. In the contrast, it's
(22:15):
hard to wrap my mind around a friendly one. It
just doesn't compute for me. Hard for me to wrap
my mind around just because being from Alaskan. Everyone I
talked to feeling forst friend. I just I don't see
it because anyone I've talked to who's had a legitimate encounter,
the first thing they sense is that overwhelming sense of
(22:36):
dread and fear. It's never thaty, warm, fuzzy feeling. It's immediate,
uh oh, I'm in serious trouble without even context for it.
Not intangible, it's just sensing something out there. Just yeah,
it's just one of those things.
Speaker 1 (22:51):
Man.
Speaker 2 (22:52):
This time, I was in the natural sciences. I was
in an environmental science program at the University of Alaska.
In general. One of my classes was I had to
have been like the second week of November. I think
at first snowed in Juno and maybe just before Halloween,
so there was a lot of snow, but it didn't
snow since and by some week of November. That was
(23:16):
actually nice ound be a unter and looking at how
conditions were down here, I had a pretty good idea
how the conditions would be farther up. I'm referring to
the West Glacier Trail. That was my favorite trail to do,
which I've probably done forty times. I was an amateur
(23:37):
videographer and I had a suny cam quarter, a high
cam quorder and a tripod and mics and everything, and
I wanted to video tap the glacier, so it class canceled.
It was spur of the moment that happened to have
my gear in my truck, and I just jumped in
(23:57):
my truck and meted to cabin, which is on the
north end of Minnall Lake. There's the parking lot there.
I just parked, locked my truck, and I got my
gear and I started up the trail. I only had
ten shoes on. I never weather proccast. I wasn't going
to get that much cold. I don't get cold anyway.
(24:20):
I had my jacket and everything, and I just kept
my gear, started up and went out on the trail.
Very little snow but mostly gravel. The first mile and
a half of the trail pretty much level. There's a
few little hill then it starts going up. There's all
the zigzaggs going up. Switchbacks started getting elevate. And as
(24:43):
they were going up and I was getting right alongside
the glacier, finally made it to where I wanted to go,
which is there's a famous site which is going inside
the glacier and you can go underneath the ice and
you go inside this cavern of ice. Lighting is supposed
to amazing. That was way down near the glacier. I
(25:03):
just wanted to be up on top. And I set
up my tripod, set up my camphorder, and I zoomed in.
I just waited. Every fifteen to twenty minutes I would
get your rumble. I knew when it rumbled there was
ice moving. That's what caused the rumble, was the ice
moving across rocks. I kept trying to film it. I
(25:24):
must have been there almost two hours. I think I
got there on one o'clock, so it was almost three o'clock.
I finally saw the ice move as it was rumbling,
so I was really happy about that. It took me
two hours to get that shot. While I was thinking
about that, I noticed the sun way off in the distance.
(25:46):
Because Lynn Canal was right on the opposite side of
Ok Bay. There's a bunch of islands way off in distance,
and sun was just getting ready to set behind it.
I said, man, I got back up and leave, because
when that sun goes behind of maybe an hour of
light and then it's going to be dark. I knew
(26:09):
the moon riz wasn't gonna happen until halve o'clock. But
I wasn't feel worried because I just knew that trail
so well. I packed all my gear and I started
heading back. You know, I was almost running, but not quite.
I was definitely fast hiking fair enough. But an hour
went by and I must have covered a mile and
a half or so. I got caught in the darkness.
(26:31):
I was in the tree as I was telling me
about the trees, and sobeast trees are big, thick, you know,
with the sundown, and it is dark in the canopy
underneath the canopy that was hiking down. But I knew
the trail. It took me longer, and I just kept
going and just went on for I don't know, fifteen
(26:54):
twenty minutes. When it was so dark I could even
see my tenney threes that's up darker with and I
heard something walking down because it was very quiet. There
was a mini animals around that time of the year.
I was seking in it to myself, I wonder what
that is because it sounded big. I couldn't make out
(27:16):
what the animal was by its sound of its footstep.
I had no clue what it was down there. As
I was walking slowly listening to it. I must have
been right above it. I remember thinking, whatever that is,
it's going up towards where I was on the side
(27:36):
of the glacier. What's going the other directon which had
torn down going to the parking lot where I was.
It was a little valley just rising up slowly. I'm
very familiar with that valley because many times I've been
there to go to get to salmon berry or raspberries
and blueberries. I know it's thick with berries down there.
(27:57):
In the summer, it's really brush. On my left side
there's a little granite dome, and that granted dome is
only like thirty forty feet tall. If he went on
top of it, you would see its claychure on the
other side, So I knew exactly where I was when
I thought that I'm going this way and whatever it
(28:18):
was going the other way, it stopped moving. When it
stopped moving, I stopped immediately because I'm a hunter. I
made your walk for I don't know, half minute to
a minute, and then I stopped. He'd be very silent.
I do that many times tracking an animal. I stopped,
and now I'm listening. It sounds like it went on
(28:39):
for a long time, but it wasn't. Only a few seconds.
I stopped. I was trying to figure out what it
was doing. And then I heard it or running, and
my heart just left the fear, which is really unusual
for me to have fear, to feel fear. It's just
(29:00):
something I don't normally have when I'm in the woods.
All of a sudden, it was really fearful because something
big was running, was getting louder. I knew it was
running towards me. I was racing to my mind thinking
what it was. I was coming up the hill up
that side. It's not a deer, it's not a bear,
it's not a moose. I was going through all the
(29:22):
animals I knew in my mind, and I had no
idea what it was and the fear just oh man,
it gripped me so hard. At some point I was
so afraid. I think something happened in my body where
I tasted my fear in my mouth. I've never been
afraid of anything, because I've been face to faith with
(29:44):
brown Bear, Wile Haunting, and Black Bear many times throwing
the bedpacks of walls. I'm pretty familiar with the larger
animal than the woods, and I know what to do
when that happens. Whatever was running they split up. There
was one still running right towards me, and there was
one running to the left.
Speaker 4 (30:07):
And stay tuned for more Sasquatch out to sell right
back after these messages.
Speaker 2 (30:15):
So now it sounds like there's two of them. When
they split up, it sounded like you guys were running Updale.
It sounded big because it sounded like a couple of
them ones running Updale. Something that was heavy. Because I
can feel the ground move underneath my feet, that's how
(30:35):
heavy they were. Got to realize that this only took
a couple seconds. All this I had described, it only
took about two seconds until they split apart. One was
still running very close to me. I've been filming all
day and my battery was getting low, but I knew
I had a little lamp. I said, now maybe I
(30:57):
might get some light. When you flipped that little lamp
upon the sony am quarter, the light would turn on.
And I did that. It was very dim. It wasn't
much battery left. What I saw was only like thirty
feet or so away from me. It was higher than me,
but being thirty feet it was down the hill. I
(31:20):
knew whatever this thing was, it was very tall. I
didn't see any ice time, but I saw the escape
of its body. It was just blackness. There was a
really faint light on the trees. But whatever this thing was,
I could thor up in all the light I saw
was a black silhouette. And I could see how wide
(31:40):
its back was and shoulders, and I could see his head,
and I see the arms, and I saw how long
the legs were. I remember looking at the leg it
looked like tree trunks to me, just massive. I just
couldn't believe what I was looking at. I knew what
it was, but I never expected to see something like that.
(32:01):
I think we only looked at each other for maybe
two seconds. Smacks. The next thing that happened. It is
something I can't really explain. I'll just tell what happened,
because you never was spooked to run away from predators,
whether it be a moose, bear or a wolf, because
if you do, there with an animal as came on
(32:21):
and they're run after you. But the fear was so
great in me. I I ran as I was running.
I think both of them creatures made it up to
where I was because I heard the dirt move around
up on top little scuff marks, and I knew where
they were, and I just kept running. I found I
(32:44):
heard a few footstips behind me. I was thinking, oh, man,
they're running after me. I just kept running. I ran
into the first tree, probably fifty feet from where I
started running. First tree I ran under here. It about
knocked me out. I was seeing stars and everything. I
felt the blood tripping down my forehead and I got
(33:06):
up immediately, and I still had my camcorder there on
my neck, and a pack was still on me, and
I just kept going. I was really feeling my way
because it was pitch black, and I kept hearing sounds
behind me, but I didn't think they were getting back clothed.
But I just kept moving. The fear was so great
(33:27):
in me. I just I kep menting that fear because
I had never felt that in my whole life. They're
usually not afraid of anything. I just kept running, and
I finally got to the zig zags where there's these
switchbacks and there's a steel cable that are kind of
like handles to keep you on the side of the
(33:48):
hill because it's really steep. So I knew exactly where
I was. It's good. I'm at the table and there's
about ten eleven switched back together. Do and new you
really dropped down elevation early fast. I just kept going.
When you leave the cables, there's a few sure carns
(34:10):
coming down, and then finally you hit the flats, which
is the last mile. It's a person mile that trail.
I knew I was somewhat safe. I had to run.
I could do it because it was a lot more open.
The trees were more a part, so I can see more.
That's when I first stopped, because I realized I did
(34:31):
hit some other trees, but there was nothing like that
purse tree that I smacked my head right into it.
I stopped and I was kept in my breath. Then
I was listening and I didn't hear anything. I was
real happy that I didn't hear anything. Once I taught
my breath, I just kept going as fast as I could.
(34:52):
I wasn't running, but I was definitely moving pretty fast.
I was so happy to see my truck still there.
I saw my truck and I got in, slammed the
door shut. Cigarette smoker back then, I think I had
a partial pack there, and I almost had about six
cigarettes and I smoked them all I was being smoking.
(35:12):
I was shaking. I just couldn't believe it, you know
how afraid I was, thinking I had no control over it.
I think it was by the time I finished my
sixth cigarette, kicking suicided and I start gathering myself and says, okay,
I'm safe if I'm in my truck. And I started
my truck up and I could actually do something. So
(35:34):
I drove home. Gotcha, I'm put my dear away, and
I went over to my buddy's house and told him
what happened. As a guy, my friend Doug, who I
did a lot of hunting with for a long time,
we got a lot here on seats together, and I
told him what happened. He got creeped out because he
(35:56):
knew me, and I knew I was never afraid of anything,
and to see the fear in my eyes and to
hear my voice, and I was still shaking. The next day,
I got up and I went to the ranger station
named all Glacier. I found a ranger and I told
him about my experience, and he told me that after
(36:21):
I kind of went over the same thing I just
told you. He just listen, here's writing information down. And
then when I finished, Wow, he says, we had several
reports of sightings.
Speaker 4 (36:35):
Is that.
Speaker 2 (36:36):
I don't know what you saw, but it's many people.
I saw something like that over there. You know that
doctor the Ringcoats sal.
Speaker 4 (36:45):
Want Robert Alli.
Speaker 2 (36:47):
Yeah, I know Robert Alli.
Speaker 4 (36:48):
Yeah, I'm there, not too long ago.
Speaker 2 (36:52):
Yeah. Cool. There's a story in his book, the same trail,
the same parking lot. Yeah, if you have the book,
go look it up. That's on there. About three ladies
who were there, grew up together and their mothers and
everything they did. They probably did the West Clayfter trail there,
and they came back and they weren't ready to go home. Yeah,
(37:16):
they both tired and they were just tending around this
fire and this big hairy man approached him on the
side of the fire and when they saw him the
distance here, asking how are you what do you want?
When it got closer and they saw that it was
huge and it was all covered in the air, they
just screamed, and whatever things they had left around the
(37:38):
fire they left. They ran to their cars and pore
out of that parking lot.
Speaker 4 (37:44):
I can imagine. Yeah, a lot of people don't understand
when you get that freaked out, if it ain't already
in your hands are easy to grab, you don't really
give a flying rats ask what you're leaving behind. It's irrelevant. Yeah,
they can have that one. Yeah, whatever it may be.
But it seemed like the ranger that you shared that with,
he seemed to take it serious.
Speaker 2 (38:05):
Yeah, he didn't to mock me or make any remarks
that put me down. You just listen with kind of
surprise me.
Speaker 4 (38:14):
I just wonder how many of those guys that worked
those jobs, because yeah, I've heard reports of them just saying, oh,
what you saw was a bear and not even listening
to the people. They would just immediately interject and say
it was a bear, and then whatever they have to
say about whatever the incidents was Yeah, it would always
Oh that's just a bear.
Speaker 2 (38:34):
You were dealing with the bear. It was a bear. Yeah,
they wouldn't do that with us. They obviously knew I
was to be good.
Speaker 4 (38:42):
Yeah, there's a certain types you can get away with,
not to lifelong.
Speaker 2 (38:49):
Actually born on the woods, and we know the woods,
and we know everything that's in the woods.
Speaker 4 (38:54):
And known to go to war too. Just read the
Battle of Sitka and the rest in fur Traders they
got out real quick.
Speaker 2 (39:03):
I meant that we were just fred countries, the American,
Spain and France and Rush got Yeah, we just paired
anyone who came a horror.
Speaker 4 (39:12):
Yeah, that's a totally different story. There a lot of
people they don't understand that there was warlike tribes up
here as well, because they only hear about the Plains
Indians and all the stuff that happened there. They're shocked
when they hear something about like the Battle of Sitka
where the fur Traders and the Russians got massacred. They
had some hostages and the chief or something that traded
(39:34):
himself for some of his tribesmen. But that night the
Clinkets came aboard and took their chief back, and the
captain and just made it clear that while you're asleep,
will steal your captain, and we can make things happen too.
Kind of thing, which if you're on a big ass
ship and you think you're all tough and mighty, and
all of a sudden you wake up being carried off
on a stick by the locals, you've got to reevaluate
(39:57):
your sense of power because it all goes out the
window when you're getting hauled away by the locals.
Speaker 2 (40:03):
The Russians in their forts in Sitka back in the
seventeen hundreds, that's the calend is written by an Orthodox priest,
a Russian Orthodox priest. I said they you know, early
in the morning, it must have been. He doesn't know
how early it was, pitt Black. All of a sudden
you heard your war cries coming across from Edgecombe Island,
(40:25):
which is small island. It's connected down with the bridge
to Sitka, but that's where the clinkets were. The Russian
capital was on the mainland in Sitka. And heard all
these war cries, and then looked over there and there's
a bunch of men running down to the water, and
there was snowing out, and all the men were naked,
(40:47):
and they all got into their water and started swimming.
They just couldn't believe it. After a while splash around
the water, they all gone back up.
Speaker 4 (40:56):
I'm gonna thank you, Sonny for coming back on clearing
some of that stuff up. But I want to thank
you again for joining me, and I look forward to
having you back on the channel coming this July. When
you make it up this way to the viewers, we
shall catch you guys on the next They.
Speaker 3 (41:11):
Say, you don't gotta go home, but you can't stay.
I don't want to be word lop it chop this job,
(41:49):
chid everything back the joy for me, Joy stay right
aways inside and still consists.
Speaker 2 (42:16):
Inside and still said sass inside s inside stas State
(42:37):
stills its fast stay pass stist.
Speaker 4 (43:07):
Assistants insist
Now one of your pudding. I got a string going
on here, something just cause my dog.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Something killed your dog, my dog.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
We're flying through the or over the tree. I don't
know how it did it, Okay, Damn, I'm really confused.
All I saw was my dog coming over the fence
and he was dead. And once you hit the ground like,
I didn't see any cars. All I saw was my
dog coming over the fence. Sat, what are you putting?
(00:39):
We got some wonder or something crawling around out here?
Did you see what it was?
Speaker 3 (00:51):
Or was it was?
Speaker 1 (00:52):
Standing enough? I'm out here looking through the window now
and I don't see anything. I don't want to go outside.
Jesus quice you better. Yeah, Hello, get somebody out here
when i'm out there. I thought of a bit of
about sixty nine.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
I don't know I'm out there.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
Yeah, the booking right away.
Speaker 4 (01:12):
Thanks for joining me today to spread in Alaska. We
have Sonny who's returning, so I'll let you take it
from there. Sonny.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
I'm Funny Grand Turner, Juno, Alaska. I'm full Clankett born
and raised in general. I told about my Mount Gino adventure.
I think that's pretty complete. I'll just go into Thomas Bay.
Thomas Bay trip happened in nineteen seventy two, nineteen seventy three,
and that was quite a few years ago. I'm not
(01:40):
sure if you or your listeners have heard of a
book called The Strange Victory ever told I have, Yeah,
maybe some of your listeners haven't. You can buy that
book for less than ten bucks on Amazon. The author
is Harry Kolpe. He was one of the four miners
who went to Thomas Bay. We went there mostly because
(02:01):
of that book. Thomas Bay is one hundred and five
miles south of Juno. We went as a church group.
It was about nine of us, the adults and seven boys.
We're on a twenty four foot bay liner. It took
us all day to get to Thomas Bay. It was
a beautiful weather. It was a perfect time to be
(02:24):
on the water. It was evening time when we got
to Thomas Bay. The story starts off at a river
called Patterson Creek, and we weren't certain, but we anchored
off the river. That was very beautiful. Before bed, we
read that book. It's a very short book. You don't
have to read that book. It's a good book to
(02:45):
read while you're out camping. We're at the place where
it happened in the book. We woke up the next morning.
We had a little skiff. It took a couple of
skiff rights to get all of us the shore. One
of the STAP members stayed on the boat just to
make sure the bow wouldn't drag anchor or something. We're
brother lunches. We started hiking up. We end up following
(03:08):
this ridge. I think we were fallowing a game trail,
like a deer trail or something very common to find
bear trail. They're very wide, almost like going into a
little cylinder. Yes, we were hiking up this trail, we
noticed how quiet it was. Usually you would hear a
hermit draft or eader, eagle of the ravens, other animals, squirrel, morments,
(03:35):
you would hear all these animals. We didn't hear anything.
We thought that was very unusual. We're talking amongst itself, saying, yeah,
we're definitely in the right area. It's strange because I
grew up hiking very young. I grew up deer out
and with my dad, so I was very familiar being
in the.
Speaker 4 (03:55):
Woods right now. Historically, there's some issues with that area.
There was a village and what have you that no
longer exists.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
It was a landslide that happened at the base of
Crescent Lake, which was the lake we wanted to see.
That was another reason why we were eyking up to
see that lake. They call it Half Moon Lake in
the book. There was no real name for it in
the book, but that's what it was called. The landslide
(04:25):
happened in seventeen fifty, the Big landslide, and that killed
everyone in the village. Ever since then, it's been really
creepy being there amongst the natives. There are stories that
wasn't a place to go. You avoided it because there
were some bad things happening there. The story that happened
(04:48):
with those four miners happened nineteen hundred. In the book,
he talks about several excursions to Thomas Bay all the
way up to nineteen fourteen, trained things that happened to people,
mostly the miners.
Speaker 4 (05:04):
It makes you wonder about that because me, I've always
suspected that there's something to do with the energy near
gold mining area, gold products energy along with cords and copper.
It just always seemed interesting to me that historically in
modern times there's encounters people making reports of just craziness
around gold mining man.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
That's described in the book. They called them little devils,
but it's the little people that you've talked about. There
are little people, and they're not very tall. They're like
three three and a half foot tall to mouth. That
was the reason why we just were so fascinated with
that story, plus that sighting a hand. When I was
(05:45):
younger boys being that sta squat going up mountains, you know,
I knew those strange things in the woods. It was
hard to find information, and I always looked up to
topic and libraries. Back then there was no Internet of all,
word of mouth or finding books. We just kept going
up that trail. It was so quiet. I mean, you're
(06:09):
the guy on the boat. I don't know what you
were doing, but he was moving something on the boat
and we could hear it all the way up or
we were. We must have been a thousand feet up.
Looking down you can see the water through the trees.
We couldn't really see the boat, but we heard it.
It was that quiet. We just got that with the
(06:29):
various trends, and we kept going and we had quite
a few breaks, and we do want to notice no insects.
There's usually no sea under the mosquitoes. There are always
the problem that was nothing.
Speaker 4 (06:43):
Yeah, that would definitely get my attention. Though, considering pow
Alaska is anytime it goes quiet for me, I'm either
ready to leave or my head's on a swivel, depending
on the circumstances. There's something about the sound going away.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
At some point where you reached a tree line, which
in that part of southeast I guess it's around twenty
two hundred teet some around there. Because the further south
you go, the higher of the tree line. Yeah, you
get down to Wantington Man tree lines four or five
thousand feet. So we made it up to the tree line.
We kept going up this ridge and in the distance
(07:18):
we saw a lake and we got higher and we
can clearly see the lake. Tellers stayed like a quarter moon.
We spent time up there and just enjoyed the view
and everything, and we were just waiting. We had time
to go to that lake if we can find something.
Apparently you can hike around there and find the old
abandoned campsite.
Speaker 4 (07:39):
That would be cool just from a historical aspect. I
would just hate to accidentally disturb someone's final resting grounds
or something like that. You have something following me out.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
After a while, we had to go back down. It
took us a while to get back down the same thing,
very quiet. We made it back on the boat and
which stayed there overnight anchored as the same place, and
carried it way back to you know, when you camped
out of another heerber. I think it was taco inlet.
(08:11):
Not much happened now, it's the main thing that happened
is how quiet now, no insect. But the fact that
I saw the lake that was mentioned in the book,
the book fell real to me. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (08:24):
It's nice when you're able to, if you're read a
book like that, to actually be in the place in
which it's speaking of it. It definitely gives a whole
different vibe to it. It takes it from just a
story to a screenplate.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
It's been different from those little people. That's a shape shifter,
and there's lots of stories. They can change forms. They
can look like a person, and they can look like
other animals. You might see a fox go behind the
rock and when it re emerges on the other side,
it's a different animal. There's been strange things many people
(08:59):
my tribe. Usually when you see that, you don't want
to hang around.
Speaker 4 (09:04):
Yeah, anyone in the right mind that they see a
fox go behind a rock and it comes out the
other side of the rock. As some ptarmigan or.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
Something on the internet. There's a canister who was in
the Prince of Wales Island near Ketchikan. Yes, I don't
know if you heard that guy's story.
Speaker 4 (09:22):
I've heard a few from Prince of Wales. It's always interesting.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
The reason why I'm bringing this up is I'm agreement
with what he says about the sasquatch and the things
that shape shift, that has orbs and everything that's interesting.
A man who is a preacher and he has a congregation,
the Salvation Army. He was in charge of the church.
He was told by the captain. They all have a ring,
(09:45):
and usually it's a captain that's the minister. It's a
Salvation army. It says, if anyone comes to you and
start talking about sasquatch her bigfoot, just listen and be
very polite. Don't disagree with them or make fun of them,
otherwise you'll be on the bad side of the whole community.
Everyone there's mostly clinkets and hedis. He'll be in the
(10:10):
bad side if you have a bit of a remark
about their sightings. This minister said, the shape shifters and
the things as orbs. It's his belief there is different
from a sasquatch. He buys a sasquatch, or the hairy
man is a real living, biological thing. Then he talks
(10:32):
about the things that shape shift and everything, and those
shape shifters can change into a hairy man, it can
change back. I thought that was very interesting when he
said that, and that made sense in my mind because
I just couldn't put my mind around the fact that
some things can change and have orbs because I've never
(10:54):
seen that.
Speaker 4 (10:56):
I've seen orbs, but not until recent history. And when
I first saw it, I was honestly, I was in shock.
I was like, what am I actually looking at? Because
it was like a little plasma ball.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (11:06):
It was fifteen feet in the air, twenty feet in
front of me, and then it started moving off to
my left and I followed it closely behind but paralleled it.
It stayed twenty feet away and I paralleled it off
to my left once it stopped moving and started going
into the trees. I crossed a little bit of the
driveway there down at Kenney Lake, down near the Copper River,
over at Miss Carroll's place. This was last year. As
(11:29):
soon as I crossed the driveway, because it was plasma,
swirly kind of thing, but there was something white inside
it that was very defined, I just couldn't because of
the way it was swirling. I couldn't make it out.
So I was trying to get a better look. And
then this thing started shimmering like a cat lure or something,
and then went off into the trees like it was
trying to get me to follow it. Squatch bait startled me,
(11:51):
he was like, because I didn't realize he was right
there beside me, he was like, we should go inside down.
It startled the crap out of me, and I was like,
oh shit. I was like, yeah, no doubt, but yeah,
seeing something like that and experiencing it, what do you
do with it. It's not like you can the troopers
and be like, I'd like to report this. It's hard
to know what to do with that kind of information
(12:11):
when it happens in front of it. But it would
make sense that it's more heavily spiritual when it comes
to the shape shifting and the orbs, it don't only
makes sense.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
They're the shape shifter, which is like a kushakha and
that can and just shape and has orbs energy and
they can disappear. Those are different from the Sasquatch. I
thought that was very interesting and I always felt that
they must be different things.
Speaker 4 (12:36):
Would you mind sharing just a bit about the cannibal
giants and certain things you may have heard coming up
as a youth.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
More giants I've since heard from my grandfather, Austin Hammond.
I talked about my grandfather's but there was actually two.
One was my mother's father, which is Austin and Haynes.
He was the chief of a Chowcat. And then there
was another grandfather who is from cake Cows. My father's father.
(13:03):
I only met him when I was very young because
he died, But it was Austin. My grandfather up in
Haines had told me about the Cannibell giant. A cannibal
giant happened in our area. It happened to other parts
of Alaska as well. We had a totem pole. We
had a couple of marble carvings, which was very unusual.
(13:24):
Of a cannibal giant. I always wonder when the world
is a cannibal giant. I thought that was definitely myth.
But as I grow older and when I saw that Sasquatch,
I figured that's what they are. Because the Sasquatch in
Southeast they had been reported to be fifteen twenty feet
tall the biggest ones.
Speaker 4 (13:46):
Which is massive lougus. Even if it was a bee hole,
let's say, and it's overall girth or lanky, twenty foot
is huge.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
There's a tree I discovered when I was deer on
Douglas Island, which is the island right across from Juneral.
That tree had been fifteen feet in diameter. I estimated
it would take thirty forty people to hold their hands
go around that tree trunk and the first branch was
eighty feet up. That was a red cedar tree. Back then,
(14:16):
I was a smoker and I remember having a cigarette
and asked my friend Doug, come here. They came over
to look at this, and we just couldn't believe how
big that tree was. We always went there. I tried
to go there every time I make it over to Douglas.
It's just something to see something that big What were
(14:38):
some of the things.
Speaker 4 (14:39):
That your grandpa had told you about as far as
the cannibal giants and whatnot.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
The cannibal giants is said to beware, don't go into
the woods, similar things what you said, don't whistle because
they do tree knocks. They always said if they catch you,
they'll kill you and they eat These stories are very old.
Speaker 4 (15:01):
Stay tuned for more sasquatch out to sea.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
We'll be right back after these messages.
Speaker 4 (15:09):
Oh yeah, for sure, because like when I asked an
elder one time, I was like, how do you know
they steal us and eat us? My older said, because
they always have. I said, how long have they been
doing that? You know what I mean? As a kid,
you just kind of it's hard to wrap your mind around.
Until I was older and I was told, they've always
been our enemy. They've always stolen and eaten us. Also,
(15:29):
those is about them changing you into one of them
over the course of five days. If you're captured by
your village and held for five days, it'll break that
whatever curse or whatever hold they had on you, and
you revert back to your normal self. But I've heard
a couple of those, so I'm sure it stems from
(15:51):
somewhere or something, or maybe a prisoner swap or something.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
Grandfathers. They're Austin. There's a team for the raven House.
They're even now when are sixty years old. Original village
it's from as Klukwan, which is the oldest village in
our tribe. It's been there for seven hundred and fifty years,
continues to occupy. There's seven cemeteries in Plakwan and only
(16:18):
one is used. The rest are abandoned. You can go
there and it's amazing how much stone has been used.
So that was very interesting to me since I'm a
stone curb. There were stone curbs back then, or able
to do clinket designs Northwest Coast designs on marble. One
(16:41):
stone had been about five feet tall, and there's a
cannibal giant on that design and it's pretty big. A
cannibal giant is holding a man and the man is dead,
but you can tell just by looking at it that
he killed this man. I figured this fine had it
(17:01):
been one hundred and fifty or sixty years old when
I was carved.
Speaker 4 (17:06):
Kind of makes you wonder if the grave was of
the guy that was in the land of the cannibal giant,
you know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
Yeah, no one knows.
Speaker 4 (17:14):
Makes it more interesting than knowing what I know, Like
anytime I hear of hanes in that area of southeast
Last year, I was sent some anonymous footage and it's
real grainy, but it was reported as a ten foot tall,
five foot wide hairy man with black skin and blonde hair.
It's not the best video quality, but you can see
(17:35):
this thing, and it was reported that it was plucking
roots and eating roots in the middle of the day,
looking at everyone watching it. That to me is creepy.
It's enhanced and stabilized footage. It's just like what sparked
this thing of all the time to just sit on
the open during the day. From what I was told,
like twenty twenty five people were there. I wasn't the
(17:56):
only footage recorded, It was just the only stuff sent
to me. So I'm sure there's more footage of this thing.
But for three days prior it was reported that this
thing was looking in windows, they shut down the what
was it called head Start daycare because it was seen
out back when the kids were playing. It was also
reported that people were walking around in small groups armed
(18:18):
because This thing was all over the place for whatever reason,
just drawn to town looking in everyone's windows. I don't
know if it was looking for an opportunity or what.
It's just real odd behavior because typically you don't hear
about something like that. That's a horrible thought sting. But
head start building for little snacks, little Tommy and Cindy.
(18:40):
That's affrdble.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
It's owned where Sin was a living, and it was
in a cave. Seemed to have a fire. You mentioned
one year videos to the use fire, and I have
no idea how oh they started, But in the old
story they had a fire, there was a glow about it,
and that's how they knew this cannibal giant was living.
(19:04):
The whole tribe one then all the men went in
there and attempted and I couldn't fight fifteen twenty men
who was willing to die to accomplish what they set
out to do. They eventually killed this thing from the story.
It was very big and the only thing they could
do was to take it make a big bonfire, and
(19:26):
they burned it. They cut it up and burnt it
in the fire. That was the only way to get
rid of it. And the next day everything was burnt.
And one of the myths my tribe is that's where
mosquitoes came from. Is they were stirring the calls and
the dust rose up and those turned into mosquitoes. The
(19:47):
cannibal giant says, you may kill me, but I'm still
going to torment you when I'm gone. Of course, no
one knew what he meant by that.
Speaker 4 (19:55):
A lot of people would be like, oh, that's mythology
in folklore. I don't know. I wasn't there for that.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
If we meet up later this summer and we'll show
you these photos. It's in Klokwan and there's a lot
of old houses there. It's been there for a long time.
Some of these stories were first recorded by Russian missionaries,
mostly Russian Orthodox. There was different other explorers that made
(20:21):
it into Chokecat. Like you heard of John Muir, right,
the naturalists. Yeah, John Muir wrote a book, He wrote
several books, but that went up to Choka River and
met to my distant relatives and many other explorers. German
explorers made it up there, and I think Kraus is
(20:44):
one of the guys's name. They interviewed and they reported
a lot of stories that cannibal giants story came out
that when that guy was told the story, this is
back in the late seventeen hundred. Maybe it's just a
guessing because there was no real accurate records back then,
but it was definitely late seventeens or early eighteen hundreds
(21:08):
that these stories are first recorded by non natives. Natives
that told them the cannibal giant stories said, this story
is very old. No one knows when the Tutorian when
it happened. Of course, we still have sightings of these
things in the woods. And when you know what they are,
the cannibal giants.
Speaker 4 (21:30):
You were raised with the knowledge of cannibal giant, hearing
about it from just our separate cultures about how they're
the enemy, they'll steal you in each you and things
of this nature. It's hard to hear about accounts down
in the state side where they're seemingly so friendly. And
it's not that I don't believe it, it's just because
of the contrast, the huge contrast from what some people
(21:54):
report as a friendly forest friend forest giant purveyed protector
of the woods, which I never bought that narrative because
if that was the case, why is there a logging
industry at all? Almost the force that we once had gone.
If there were such protectors, I don't see that would
have happened. It's such a difference. In the contrast, it's
(22:15):
hard to wrap my mind around a friendly one. It
just doesn't compute for me. Hard for me to wrap
my mind around just because being from Alaskan. Everyone I
talked to feeling forst friend. I just I don't see
it because anyone I've talked to who's had a legitimate encounter,
the first thing they sense is that overwhelming sense of
(22:36):
dread and fear. It's never thaty, warm, fuzzy feeling. It's immediate,
uh oh, I'm in serious trouble without even context for it.
Not intangible, it's just sensing something out there. Just yeah,
it's just one of those things.
Speaker 1 (22:51):
Man.
Speaker 2 (22:52):
This time, I was in the natural sciences. I was
in an environmental science program at the University of Alaska.
In general. One of my classes was I had to
have been like the second week of November. I think
at first snowed in Juno and maybe just before Halloween,
so there was a lot of snow, but it didn't
snow since and by some week of November. That was
(23:16):
actually nice ound be a unter and looking at how
conditions were down here, I had a pretty good idea
how the conditions would be farther up. I'm referring to
the West Glacier Trail. That was my favorite trail to do,
which I've probably done forty times. I was an amateur
(23:37):
videographer and I had a suny cam quarter, a high
cam quorder and a tripod and mics and everything, and
I wanted to video tap the glacier, so it class canceled.
It was spur of the moment that happened to have
my gear in my truck, and I just jumped in
(23:57):
my truck and meted to cabin, which is on the
north end of Minnall Lake. There's the parking lot there.
I just parked, locked my truck, and I got my
gear and I started up the trail. I only had
ten shoes on. I never weather proccast. I wasn't going
to get that much cold. I don't get cold anyway.
(24:20):
I had my jacket and everything, and I just kept
my gear, started up and went out on the trail.
Very little snow but mostly gravel. The first mile and
a half of the trail pretty much level. There's a
few little hill then it starts going up. There's all
the zigzaggs going up. Switchbacks started getting elevate. And as
(24:43):
they were going up and I was getting right alongside
the glacier, finally made it to where I wanted to go,
which is there's a famous site which is going inside
the glacier and you can go underneath the ice and
you go inside this cavern of ice. Lighting is supposed
to amazing. That was way down near the glacier. I
(25:03):
just wanted to be up on top. And I set
up my tripod, set up my camphorder, and I zoomed in.
I just waited. Every fifteen to twenty minutes I would
get your rumble. I knew when it rumbled there was
ice moving. That's what caused the rumble, was the ice
moving across rocks. I kept trying to film it. I
(25:24):
must have been there almost two hours. I think I
got there on one o'clock, so it was almost three o'clock.
I finally saw the ice move as it was rumbling,
so I was really happy about that. It took me
two hours to get that shot. While I was thinking
about that, I noticed the sun way off in the distance.
(25:46):
Because Lynn Canal was right on the opposite side of
Ok Bay. There's a bunch of islands way off in distance,
and sun was just getting ready to set behind it.
I said, man, I got back up and leave, because
when that sun goes behind of maybe an hour of
light and then it's going to be dark. I knew
(26:09):
the moon riz wasn't gonna happen until halve o'clock. But
I wasn't feel worried because I just knew that trail
so well. I packed all my gear and I started
heading back. You know, I was almost running, but not quite.
I was definitely fast hiking fair enough. But an hour
went by and I must have covered a mile and
a half or so. I got caught in the darkness.
(26:31):
I was in the tree as I was telling me
about the trees, and sobeast trees are big, thick, you know,
with the sundown, and it is dark in the canopy
underneath the canopy that was hiking down. But I knew
the trail. It took me longer, and I just kept
going and just went on for I don't know, fifteen
(26:54):
twenty minutes. When it was so dark I could even
see my tenney threes that's up darker with and I
heard something walking down because it was very quiet. There
was a mini animals around that time of the year.
I was seking in it to myself, I wonder what
that is because it sounded big. I couldn't make out
(27:16):
what the animal was by its sound of its footstep.
I had no clue what it was down there. As
I was walking slowly listening to it. I must have
been right above it. I remember thinking, whatever that is,
it's going up towards where I was on the side
(27:36):
of the glacier. What's going the other directon which had
torn down going to the parking lot where I was.
It was a little valley just rising up slowly. I'm
very familiar with that valley because many times I've been
there to go to get to salmon berry or raspberries
and blueberries. I know it's thick with berries down there.
(27:57):
In the summer, it's really brush. On my left side
there's a little granite dome, and that granted dome is
only like thirty forty feet tall. If he went on
top of it, you would see its claychure on the
other side, So I knew exactly where I was when
I thought that I'm going this way and whatever it
(28:18):
was going the other way, it stopped moving. When it
stopped moving, I stopped immediately because I'm a hunter. I
made your walk for I don't know, half minute to
a minute, and then I stopped. He'd be very silent.
I do that many times tracking an animal. I stopped,
and now I'm listening. It sounds like it went on
(28:39):
for a long time, but it wasn't. Only a few seconds.
I stopped. I was trying to figure out what it
was doing. And then I heard it or running, and
my heart just left the fear, which is really unusual
for me to have fear, to feel fear. It's just
(29:00):
something I don't normally have when I'm in the woods.
All of a sudden, it was really fearful because something
big was running, was getting louder. I knew it was
running towards me. I was racing to my mind thinking
what it was. I was coming up the hill up
that side. It's not a deer, it's not a bear,
it's not a moose. I was going through all the
(29:22):
animals I knew in my mind, and I had no
idea what it was and the fear just oh man,
it gripped me so hard. At some point I was
so afraid. I think something happened in my body where
I tasted my fear in my mouth. I've never been
afraid of anything, because I've been face to faith with
(29:44):
brown Bear, Wile Haunting, and Black Bear many times throwing
the bedpacks of walls. I'm pretty familiar with the larger
animal than the woods, and I know what to do
when that happens. Whatever was running they split up. There
was one still running right towards me, and there was
one running to the left.
Speaker 4 (30:07):
And stay tuned for more Sasquatch out to sell right
back after these messages.
Speaker 2 (30:15):
So now it sounds like there's two of them. When
they split up, it sounded like you guys were running Updale.
It sounded big because it sounded like a couple of
them ones running Updale. Something that was heavy. Because I
can feel the ground move underneath my feet, that's how
(30:35):
heavy they were. Got to realize that this only took
a couple seconds. All this I had described, it only
took about two seconds until they split apart. One was
still running very close to me. I've been filming all
day and my battery was getting low, but I knew
I had a little lamp. I said, now maybe I
(30:57):
might get some light. When you flipped that little lamp
upon the sony am quarter, the light would turn on.
And I did that. It was very dim. It wasn't
much battery left. What I saw was only like thirty
feet or so away from me. It was higher than me,
but being thirty feet it was down the hill. I
(31:20):
knew whatever this thing was, it was very tall. I
didn't see any ice time, but I saw the escape
of its body. It was just blackness. There was a
really faint light on the trees. But whatever this thing was,
I could thor up in all the light I saw
was a black silhouette. And I could see how wide
(31:40):
its back was and shoulders, and I could see his head,
and I see the arms, and I saw how long
the legs were. I remember looking at the leg it
looked like tree trunks to me, just massive. I just
couldn't believe what I was looking at. I knew what
it was, but I never expected to see something like that.
(32:01):
I think we only looked at each other for maybe
two seconds. Smacks. The next thing that happened. It is
something I can't really explain. I'll just tell what happened,
because you never was spooked to run away from predators,
whether it be a moose, bear or a wolf, because
if you do, there with an animal as came on
(32:21):
and they're run after you. But the fear was so
great in me. I I ran as I was running.
I think both of them creatures made it up to
where I was because I heard the dirt move around
up on top little scuff marks, and I knew where
they were, and I just kept running. I found I
(32:44):
heard a few footstips behind me. I was thinking, oh, man,
they're running after me. I just kept running. I ran
into the first tree, probably fifty feet from where I
started running. First tree I ran under here. It about
knocked me out. I was seeing stars and everything. I
felt the blood tripping down my forehead and I got
(33:06):
up immediately, and I still had my camcorder there on
my neck, and a pack was still on me, and
I just kept going. I was really feeling my way
because it was pitch black, and I kept hearing sounds
behind me, but I didn't think they were getting back clothed.
But I just kept moving. The fear was so great
(33:27):
in me. I just I kep menting that fear because
I had never felt that in my whole life. They're
usually not afraid of anything. I just kept running, and
I finally got to the zig zags where there's these
switchbacks and there's a steel cable that are kind of
like handles to keep you on the side of the
(33:48):
hill because it's really steep. So I knew exactly where
I was. It's good. I'm at the table and there's
about ten eleven switched back together. Do and new you
really dropped down elevation early fast. I just kept going.
When you leave the cables, there's a few sure carns
(34:10):
coming down, and then finally you hit the flats, which
is the last mile. It's a person mile that trail.
I knew I was somewhat safe. I had to run.
I could do it because it was a lot more open.
The trees were more a part, so I can see more.
That's when I first stopped, because I realized I did
(34:31):
hit some other trees, but there was nothing like that
purse tree that I smacked my head right into it.
I stopped and I was kept in my breath. Then
I was listening and I didn't hear anything. I was
real happy that I didn't hear anything. Once I taught
my breath, I just kept going as fast as I could.
(34:52):
I wasn't running, but I was definitely moving pretty fast.
I was so happy to see my truck still there.
I saw my truck and I got in, slammed the
door shut. Cigarette smoker back then, I think I had
a partial pack there, and I almost had about six
cigarettes and I smoked them all I was being smoking.
(35:12):
I was shaking. I just couldn't believe it, you know
how afraid I was, thinking I had no control over it.
I think it was by the time I finished my
sixth cigarette, kicking suicided and I start gathering myself and says, okay,
I'm safe if I'm in my truck. And I started
my truck up and I could actually do something. So
(35:34):
I drove home. Gotcha, I'm put my dear away, and
I went over to my buddy's house and told him
what happened. As a guy, my friend Doug, who I
did a lot of hunting with for a long time,
we got a lot here on seats together, and I
told him what happened. He got creeped out because he
(35:56):
knew me, and I knew I was never afraid of anything,
and to see the fear in my eyes and to
hear my voice, and I was still shaking. The next day,
I got up and I went to the ranger station
named all Glacier. I found a ranger and I told
him about my experience, and he told me that after
(36:21):
I kind of went over the same thing I just
told you. He just listen, here's writing information down. And
then when I finished, Wow, he says, we had several
reports of sightings.
Speaker 4 (36:35):
Is that.
Speaker 2 (36:36):
I don't know what you saw, but it's many people.
I saw something like that over there. You know that
doctor the Ringcoats sal.
Speaker 4 (36:45):
Want Robert Alli.
Speaker 2 (36:47):
Yeah, I know Robert Alli.
Speaker 4 (36:48):
Yeah, I'm there, not too long ago.
Speaker 2 (36:52):
Yeah. Cool. There's a story in his book, the same trail,
the same parking lot. Yeah, if you have the book,
go look it up. That's on there. About three ladies
who were there, grew up together and their mothers and
everything they did. They probably did the West Clayfter trail there,
and they came back and they weren't ready to go home. Yeah,
(37:16):
they both tired and they were just tending around this
fire and this big hairy man approached him on the
side of the fire and when they saw him the
distance here, asking how are you what do you want?
When it got closer and they saw that it was
huge and it was all covered in the air, they
just screamed, and whatever things they had left around the
(37:38):
fire they left. They ran to their cars and pore
out of that parking lot.
Speaker 4 (37:44):
I can imagine. Yeah, a lot of people don't understand
when you get that freaked out, if it ain't already
in your hands are easy to grab, you don't really
give a flying rats ask what you're leaving behind. It's irrelevant. Yeah,
they can have that one. Yeah, whatever it may be.
But it seemed like the ranger that you shared that with,
he seemed to take it serious.
Speaker 2 (38:05):
Yeah, he didn't to mock me or make any remarks
that put me down. You just listen with kind of
surprise me.
Speaker 4 (38:14):
I just wonder how many of those guys that worked
those jobs, because yeah, I've heard reports of them just saying, oh,
what you saw was a bear and not even listening
to the people. They would just immediately interject and say
it was a bear, and then whatever they have to
say about whatever the incidents was Yeah, it would always
Oh that's just a bear.
Speaker 2 (38:34):
You were dealing with the bear. It was a bear. Yeah,
they wouldn't do that with us. They obviously knew I
was to be good.
Speaker 4 (38:42):
Yeah, there's a certain types you can get away with,
not to lifelong.
Speaker 2 (38:49):
Actually born on the woods, and we know the woods,
and we know everything that's in the woods.
Speaker 4 (38:54):
And known to go to war too. Just read the
Battle of Sitka and the rest in fur Traders they
got out real quick.
Speaker 2 (39:03):
I meant that we were just fred countries, the American,
Spain and France and Rush got Yeah, we just paired
anyone who came a horror.
Speaker 4 (39:12):
Yeah, that's a totally different story. There a lot of
people they don't understand that there was warlike tribes up
here as well, because they only hear about the Plains
Indians and all the stuff that happened there. They're shocked
when they hear something about like the Battle of Sitka
where the fur Traders and the Russians got massacred. They
had some hostages and the chief or something that traded
(39:34):
himself for some of his tribesmen. But that night the
Clinkets came aboard and took their chief back, and the
captain and just made it clear that while you're asleep,
will steal your captain, and we can make things happen too.
Kind of thing, which if you're on a big ass
ship and you think you're all tough and mighty, and
all of a sudden you wake up being carried off
on a stick by the locals, you've got to reevaluate
(39:57):
your sense of power because it all goes out the
window when you're getting hauled away by the locals.
Speaker 2 (40:03):
The Russians in their forts in Sitka back in the
seventeen hundreds, that's the calend is written by an Orthodox priest,
a Russian Orthodox priest. I said they you know, early
in the morning, it must have been. He doesn't know
how early it was, pitt Black. All of a sudden
you heard your war cries coming across from Edgecombe Island,
(40:25):
which is small island. It's connected down with the bridge
to Sitka, but that's where the clinkets were. The Russian
capital was on the mainland in Sitka. And heard all
these war cries, and then looked over there and there's
a bunch of men running down to the water, and
there was snowing out, and all the men were naked,
(40:47):
and they all got into their water and started swimming.
They just couldn't believe it. After a while splash around
the water, they all gone back up.
Speaker 4 (40:56):
I'm gonna thank you, Sonny for coming back on clearing
some of that stuff up. But I want to thank
you again for joining me, and I look forward to
having you back on the channel coming this July. When
you make it up this way to the viewers, we
shall catch you guys on the next They.
Speaker 3 (41:11):
Say, you don't gotta go home, but you can't stay.
I don't want to be word lop it chop this job,
(41:49):
chid everything back the joy for me, Joy stay right
aways inside and still consists.
Speaker 2 (42:16):
Inside and still said sass inside s inside stas State
(42:37):
stills its fast stay pass stist.
Speaker 4 (43:07):
Assistants insist
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